CASCADE FLYER January 2006, Vol. 06, Issue 1 Website: http://co-opa.rellim.com/ President's Message: It was great to see so many folks at our annual year end party. We had good food, a lot of good fun, bade goodbye to old friends, and did some good as well. The chapter provided the Ham main dish and the members came up with a cornucopia of wonderful trimmings. It was a feast beyond our usual high standards. After dinner we had the sad job of bidding farewell to Dale & Ginny Evans. They are going west, but only as far west as Eugene. Dale has been a tireless advocate for the Bend Airport and the Oregon Pilots Association. Ginny has allowed Dale to gallivant around and also been a good friend to all of us. We thanked Dale for his numerous contributions and sent them on his way with a scrapbook of CO-OPA memories. With luck both of them will be back to visit us often. Norma Wilfong also gave us an update on our Holiday Charity. Once again we have helped someone less fortunate have a Merry Christmas. Thanks to Norma and all the contributors for making this happen. This month we have a bit of business to take care of. We have been having so much fun we are a bit late in having our annual election (sentencing?) of Officers. So this month we need to select the annual nominations committee to see if they can find enough unwary folk to fill our elected positions: President, Vice-President and Secretary/Treasurer. If you have a bit of spare energy and wish to help our Chapter keep running smoothly then please consider if you can step up and fill a position. Another tradition we have let slide is in presenting our own Chapter's Awards. So this month's meeting we will rectify that. Some of the awards to be handed out include: the "Wrong Way Corrigan" award for the longest pleasure trip of the year; the "Snoopy and the Red Baron" award for the most interesting flying experience of the year; and the "Barnstormer" for the pilot to fly the most non-commercial passengers. So let's have everyone spend a bit of time ruminating in the old log book for your best 2005 flying experiences to share with the group and maybe win an award for your trouble. Calendar: 19 January - Monthly Meeting 21 January - Monthly Flyout 16 February - Monthly Meeting 18 February - Monthly Flyout 16 March - Monthly Meeting 18 March - Monthly Flyout 20 April - Monthly Meeting 22 April - Monthly Flyout 18 May - Monthly Meeting 20 May - Monthly Flyout 2-3 June - FAA Fly Safe Clinic 9-11 June - Balloons Over Bend 17 June - Bend Airport open house Web doings: The Central Oregon Fly Safe Clinic now has a web site. You can find it on our website on the links page. Not much there yet but expect a lot more soon: http://coflysafe.org/ As always, the CO-OPA website contains recent newsletters and other goodies. http://co-opa.rellim.com/ To access the members only areas the username is "S07" and the password is "123.0". My Inbox: CO-OPA is not alone in representing pilots in the Central Oregon area. The Naval Aviation Foundation High Desert Squadron is another one of many. Our own Joel Premselaar is also a member of the NAF and passes along this note on their next meeting this 25 Jan, 11:30am at the Elks Club. Their speaker will be William F. (Bill) Shea, most recently of the California Transportation Foundation Board. Bill will explain why the U.S. now needs federal oversight of the aviation industry. The U.S. is losing its world aviation position due to fractioned policies and a lack of vision. Contact Joel at prems@bendbroadband.com if you would like to attend. Random Thoughts: The end of the year is certainly the best of times and the worst of times to be a pilot. It is the worst of times because of the weather. Most of us had a bit of free time to go out flying after the Christmas rush. Mother nature had other plans for us. Every time it seemed like there was a break in the weather there was another front barreling at us. The only good stretch of weather that we managed to get deprived us of a White Christmas. I don't know about your house, but if I had tried to go flying instead of opening presents I might not have had a home to come back to. It was the best of times because it was also good to have time to think about what a great flying year 2005 was and what a great flying year 2006 will be. Time to slow down a bit, at least after the presents have been opened, and to talk with fellow pilots and share our common love for flight. Even read a few of those long ignored aviation magazines. The bad weather also allows me to get on an airliner guilt free and leave the flying to someone else for a change. I can gaze out that tiny passenger window of the 737 and not worry about keeping all the needles centered and can instead enjoy the peacefulness of the world gliding by below. But enough of this end of year thing, I am ready for some good flying weather again! Let 2006 show us how good the weather can be again, and do it quickly! Gary Miller Greg Phillips, Airport Manager, presenting Dale Evans with a current, framed photo of Bend Muni CO-OPA Christmas, 2005 The CO-OPA Christmas party-meeting is all about food, flying, and fine frivolous fun with friends. The food was fantastic (President Gary brought the ham, what an appropriate way to ham it up) and the gifts ran the gamut of good to Gawdawful with a touch of goodness gracious, like what the bleep is it? I'm sure we'll see some of the more memorable items recycled next year. I know Mr. Wilfong will see his old radio appear in a reincarnated form suitable for hanging by its transistors. And, let's look into headset friendly party hats for favors. Also, notify the press!!! One of the most remarkable times for me that evening occurred when I left, as it probably was for many others also. I know, I know, I should have exited earlier, right? I slipped on the ice and landed hard (full stall, no bounce) while the tray of teriyaki leftovers I was carrying did a loop with a half roll over me and covered me in sauce. Mmmmm, delicious!!! It's very hard to get up off of very slick ice with any semblance of grace. Full power and flaps didn't seem to help while I was inverted. I felt like a beetle on its back, waving its feet in the air and going nowhere. My hands were freezing to the ice and I was stuck on all fours looking like a drunk in trouble surrounded by a freezing puddle of tossed leftovers. It was a very classic scene, if not very classy. At least there weren't any witnesses ?. that I know of. Let's do it again everyone. Happy New Year!!! Ed Endsley ED Note: No photos of the fall, Ed but there are others on the last page. A NEAT STORY For those needing a reason of some kind for buying an Aircraft I have read many posts on the web site from members and on MMAIL who are thinking about owning their own aircraft and looking for ways to offset the cost of ownership. I have heard many reasons for and against ownership. Why buy an aircraft? It's cheaper to rent and you do not have all the hassle with maintenance, fuel and insurance. Well, here is a little story that I think explains it all as to why I own my own airplane. It was a beautiful Saturday morning. No winds and the temperature was just right. So instead of mowing the lawn like my wife had planned for me, I decided to go to the airport and take the Sport out for a run. She yells back at me, "WELL IF YOU GO, TAKE YOUR SON WITH YOU." So I ask my son. Want to go flying with dad? In which he says Yea, Can I take my light saber? You see, my 9-year son thinks he is a Jedi Knight and that our Sport is his personal X-Wing fighter. He is only 4'5 and has to sit on a pillow in order to see over the glare shield and he always carries his light saber just in case we land on a strange planet in which there might be trouble or civil un-rest. Always prepared this one is. So away we go . THERE I WAS ??. We were straight and level at around 6,000ft and I let him take the controls of the X-Wing to do some turns to the left and right. Joshua Approach called and said there was traffic at our 2'oclock 2 miles opposite direction and My son said to me "Look over there dad, Tie fighter coming right at us". I told him to steer clear of the Tie Fighter because our lasers were out for repair and we were un-armed. No reason to provoke a fight. So even though he is having a blast, I am starting to get a little bored and thought, "Let's go do a practice approach on the ILS". So I called Joshua Approach, requested the ILS 25 Approach to Palmdale Full Approach and off we went. I maneuvered the X-Wing to the VOR and started the turn outbound to the outer marker. Now my son is just really enjoying this. At the outer marker, the blue light started to flash and you could hear the BEEP in the headset. My Son jumps in and said "That Tie Fighter has locked on to us" I said "That's Right" and I started my evasive maneuver on the procedure turn My Son is listening to the exchange between me and the controller and wants to chime in on the conversion. I said to my son, "Just hang on; I will give you a chance". I never should have said that because now he is all excited to talk on the radio. As I start to turn inbound on the turn, the Approach control said "Contact tower when established on the localizer". So I told my young Padawan Learner "OK, when this needle gets here on the dial, push the radio button and tell the tower that 93 Romeo is inbound on the localizer". Now imagine this; I am giving basic instrument instruction to a 9 year old; I cannot get adults to say this during training. So before I can give him something simpler to say he keys the mike and says: "REBEL BASE, THIS IS RED 5. WE ARE STARTING OUR ATTACK RUN ON THE DEATH STAR". Good God. Now this post 9/11 and before I can key my mike and say anything, the tower jumps on and says "RED 5, YOU'RE CLEARED FOR THE APPROACH TO THE DEATH STAR. REPORTS HITS AWAY" Now I am waiting for the tower to add "And tell your dad to call this number" But I hear nothing else. So we continue the approach. Now my son is in heaven. This is real life stuff to him and he is doing everything I tell him to do as far as tracking the needle. As we approach the outer marker inbound, the light starts to flash and there is that tone again. "Dad, the Death Star has a lock on us". Yes Son, you keep on the approach, I will worry about the guns. Everything is going great and now we are approaching the middle marker. My son has noticed the GPS has a red line with an airplane on it and it ends at the Death Star. So he asks me "IS THAT A TARGETING COMPUTER DAD?" Well of course it is, and it shows us where we are to the target. So now he hears Obewan tell him to USE THE FORCE, SCOTT and he turns the GPS OFF. Tells me he is OK and does not need the targeting computer because he is using the FORCE. Now the middle marker light flashes and the tone comes on. I apply full power and the airplane, X-Wing,,, Starts a climb. I start the turn to the missed approach path when my son keys the mike and says "HITS AWAY". The tower answers back with "GOOD JOB RED 5, CONTACT REBEL APPROACH ON 126.1" We go back to Mojave SPACEPORT, and I decide that the X-Wing needs a bath. So out comes all the cleaning stuff and we spend the rest of the day washing and waxing the turbo jets and laser pods. So you see. This is why I own my own aircraft. You cannot beat this kind of quality time with your kids. And there is no way you can put a price on that. Jeff Bryant Southwest Regional Director Beech Aero Club 1975 X-Wing Fighter Model B-19 N6993R COOPA SAFETY CORNER By Joel Premselaar Sometimes, as I sit before my keyboard I feel like a "Prophet Of Doom." The very nature of these pieces I dutifully produce each month makes me feel like Digger O'Dell of Allen's Alley. If you don't know who Digger is, turn to the nearest gray head you see and ask, "Who in the H-E-DOUBLETOOTHPICKS is Digger O'Dell?" Watch the tears well up in that person's eyes as she/he describes the "Fred Allen Show." Oh well, I guess I'll bite my upper lip and press on trying to arm you with information that may keep your family from utilizing Digger O'Dell's services. Take a piece of copper wire and bend it back and forth until, lo and behold, you suddenly have two pieces, one in each hand, so much for bending moments. If you exert enough tension on a bolt, it narrows reducing the area of some part of it thereby causing it to fail. Now, consider what your flying machine has to endure. T-34s engaged in high "G" dog fighting at all airspeeds have been grounded because they have taken up the bad habit of emulating fallen angels; i.e., shedding their wings. Real military aircraft are specially designed to withstand such abuse. In many cases, the pilot blacks out thereby relaxing the Gs. Human limitations have saved that part of their anatomy upon which they sit, so to speak. As I mentioned in a previous article, because we had to inflate our landing gear oleo struts to gain ground clearance for certain weapons we carried, we eliminated its shock absorbing capabilities. I used to ring up 11 or 12 Gs in an F2H Banshee designed for 9Gs (not counting a safety margin) just taxiing across tar strips. WOW! You say. Not to worry. The Gs were of such short duration that the force was alleviated before the structural components had the time to distort and subsequently fail. To a certain degree, Gs have little meaning unless associated with a time line. When you encounter turbulence, immediately reduce your airspeed to VB (not in every POH so you use VA which is usually more conservative anyway). If you are in excess of the prescribed gust speed limits, you may lose the game. How you reduce your speed is important. I know of two accidents involving Cessna Aztecs; both occurred in the L.A. basin. According to the accident reports, they were descending in smooth air with the airspeed indicator in the yellow. They transitioned the temperature inversion (clearly defined by the haze line) into turbulent air. Attempting to reduce their air speed by pulling up, they superimposed extra Gs upon those generated by the turbulent air and shed their wings! One may also assume that they did not throttle back sufficiently as their manifold pressure increased during their descent. This wet weather is suggestive of a caveat regarding the positioning of your prop when your aircraft is parked in the open. I was a bit negligent when, one winter, I parked my plane with its prop in the horizontal at Norwood Airport near Boston, MA. The drain holes in my prop spinner were plugged. That evening, wind drove rain into my prop's spinner. It froze during the night. Early the following morning, I started up for the next leg of my journey. The engine started to shake violently. I shut down and started a full scale search to isolate the cause. Long story short, I reached behind the prop spinner's flange and therein resided a block of ice. I kept that area clean thereafter; yet sure enough, it happened again even though the drain holes were clear. Sleet got into it this time. Now I keep the prop vertical to allow drainage through the spinner's prop opening. Nonetheless, I still check behind the spinner's flange. Of course, Gary, those with three bladed props should keep one blade down! Here's a winter hint followed by a checklist I presented in the December 2000 "Hangar Flying" newsletter: As with every flight, we start with the flight planning and preflight inspection. We lay out a route to AVOID ICING; at times we won't succeed in this. The long way to a destination is sometimes the surest way to get there. Say you're in the Willamette Valley, clouds prevail and you want to fly east. Climbing east would put you into the thickest clouds whereas climbing west the terrain is lower. Before turning toward the east, climb to on top and stay that way if you can and if you can't, at least you'll minimize icing or even be above the icing level. You don't have to consult with Merlin to learn that you can always pull a 180. Some do's and don'ts for winter operations: * Do develop a check list expressly for winter operations * After a rain, check the prop spinner as discussed above. Lower the elevator, flaps and each aileron to drain trapped water that may freeze and create an imbalance * Check pitot heater * Plan shorter legs and carry all the fuel you can * Except for fuel, lighten the aircraft. A heavy aircraft spends more time in the climb and, therefore, in icing conditions * The machine will be very reluctant to obey your command to take off if it has snow, ice, or frost on it. Swab the prop with some anti-icing stuff too * Taxi on icy taxiways when it's windy and you'll make like Sonja Henie (Wow, that really dates me!) SAFETY CORNER - continued * Cycle the landing gear several times (in flight only, dummy) if you taxi and/or you #!^%&* take off through slush. Also, iced up wheel pants will provide you with outstanding wheel brakes * Before flight, set windshield defrosters to maximum heat. If icing conditions exist, suffer the cold and turn off cabin heat to maximize the heat to the defrosters * Climb too steeply or fly excessively long at a high angle of attack, the bottom of the aircraft will load up with ice you can't see. It may weld your retractable landing gear doors to the airframe with ice * The sharper leading edge of the tail will ice up before the wing. Minimize or eliminate the use of flaps even at the slightest hint of ice. Want to know why? Get a cup of coffee, draw up a chair, and ask me, if you dare * If you need to use carburetor air, be sure to lean for optimum power. If you fail to lean, you'll fail the course and may join a number of others who failed to reach a proper runway for want of go juice. Here's another reason for extra fuel on board: if you have ice aboard and your destination is above freezing when you arrive, fly around 'til most or all the ice melts off (it pays to have black leading edges). From the Safety Corner: The FAA has changed the standard for taxiway centerlines to provide a visual cue to pilots that they are approaching a runway holding position. The new markings, to be applied initially to the 72 busiest airports, are dashed lines applied to the standard centerline marking, 150 feet from the hold line. See the drawing. If you are taxiing at one of the affected airports and see the dashed line on either side of your centerline, go "heads-up" and be aware that a hold line is just ahead. And STOP at the hold. The closest airports affected by this are: GEG (Spokane), PDX (Portland), RNO (Reno), LAS (Las Vegas), SFO (San Francisco), SLC (Salt Lake City), SJC (San Jose), and OAK (Oakland). If the change reduces runway incursion rate, expect to see this at many more airports. (Gotta see the pix in the PDF newsletter!) DECEMBER NON-FLY-OUT.... As has become so common here lately, the weather was OOOOOOGLY on Saturday, Dec.17 ... the day we were scheduled for our monthly fly-out ? so ? the plan was made to go to the Black Bear Diner for breakfast and hangar flying. The group was small but enthusiastic ? it consisted of Ed Endsley, Curt and Jackie Turner and Don and Norma Wilfong. The group was small ? we had a good time without the rest of you being there, but know that you were missed. Maybe next time. .... DON WILFONG AOPA works to keep Montana backcountry strips serviceable Backcountry airstrips provide safe places for pilots to land in the event of an emergency, but they also enable aircraft to provide supplies to campers, conduct search and rescue operations, and fight fires. That's why AOPA is working to ensure that a draft resource management plan for the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument area would clearly mark any closed airstrips and maintain them in a serviceable condition. "AOPA believes that obstructions must not be placed across a runway and that ditches should not be dug on the landing surface since obstructing the landing area could endanger the life of the pilot and passengers," said Roger Cohen, AOPA vice president of regional affairs. AOPA requested that the Bureau of Land Management, which manages 375,000 acres of land in north-central Montana and numerous recreational backcountry airstrips, reject an alternative included in the draft plan that would close all 10 of the airfields in the park. "Backcountry airstrips are vital assets that need to be preserved and accounted for," Cohen said. AOPA has filed comments in support of the draft plan's preferred alternative, Alternative F, because it keeps six of the strips open and provides for the establishment of a plan to maintain them. AOPA members are encouraged to submit comments via e-mail before the April 26, 2006 deadline. ?..